He made a little flourish with the book which had so long been his bosom friend, and added: “But I hope you are in no trouble that you come to me—so many come to me in their troubles,” he continued with an air of satisfaction.
“Come to you—why, you have enough troubles of your own!” she made answer. “It’s because you have your own troubles that I’m here.”
“Why you are here,” he remarked vaguely.
There was something very direct and childlike in Virginie Poucette. She could not pretend; she wore her heart on her sleeve. She travelled a long distance in a little while.
“I’ve got no trouble myself,” she responded. “But, yes, I have,” she added. “I’ve got one trouble—it’s yours. It’s that you’ve been having hard times—the flour-mill, your cousin Auguste Charron, the lawsuits, and all the rest. They say at Vilray that you have all you can do to keep out of the Bankruptcy Court, and that—”
Jean Jacques started, flushed, and seemed about to get angry; but she put things right at once.
“People talk more than they know, but there’s always some fire where there’s smoke,” she hastened to explain. “Besides, your father-in-law babbles more than is good for him or for you. I thought at first that M. Dolores was a first-class kind of man, that he had had hard times too, and I let him come and see me; but I found him out, and that was the end of it, you may be sure. If you like him, I don’t want to say anything more, but I’m sure that he’s no real friend to you-or to anybody. If that man went to confession—but there, that’s not what I’ve come for. I’ve come to say to you that I never felt so sorry for anyone in my life as I do for you. I cried all night after your beautiful mill was burned down. You were coming to see me next day—you remember what you said in M. Fille’s office—but of course you couldn’t. Of course, there was no reason why you should come to see me really—I’ve ‘only got two hundred acres and the house. It’s a good house, though—Palass saw to that—and it’s insured; but still I know you’d have come just the same if I’d had only two acres. I know. There’s hosts of people you’ve been good to here, and they’re sorry for you; and I’m sorrier than any, for I’m alone, and you’re alone, too, except for the old Dolores, and he’s no good to either of us—mark my words, no good to you! I’m sorry for you, M’sieu’ Jean Jacques, and I’ve come to say that I’m ready to lend you two thousand dollars, if that’s any help. I could make it more if I had time; but sometimes money on the spot is worth a lot more than what’s just crawling to you—snailing along while you eat your heart out. Two thousand dollars is two thousand dollars—I know what it’s worth to me, though it mayn’t be much to you; but I didn’t earn it. It belonged to a first-class man, and he worked for it, and he died and left it to me. It’s not come easy, go easy with me. I like to feel I’ve got two thousand cash without having to mortgage for it. But it belonged to a number-one man, a man of brains—I’ve got no brains, only some sense—and I want another good man to use it and make the world easier for himself.”
It was a long speech, and she delivered it in little gasps of oratory which were brightened by her wonderfully kind smile and the heart—not to say sentiment—which showed in her face. The sentiment, however, did not prejudice Jean Jacques against her, for he was a sentimentalist himself. His feelings were very quick, and before she had spoken fifty words the underglow of his eyes was flooded by something which might have been mistaken for tears. It was, however, only the moisture of gratitude and the soul’s good feeling.
“Well there, well there,” he said when she had finished, “I’ve never had anything like this in my life before. It’s the biggest thing in the art of being a neighbour I’ve ever seen. You’ve only been in the parish three years, and yet you’ve shown me a confidence immense, inspiring! It is as the Greek philosopher said, ‘To conceive the human mind aright is the greatest gift from the gods.’ And to you, who never read a line of philosophy, without doubt, you have done the thing that is greatest. It says, ‘I teach neighbourliness and life’s exchange.’ Madame, your house ought to be called Neighbourhood House. It is the epitome of the spirit, it is the shrine of—”
He was working himself up to a point where he could forget all the things that trouble humanity, in the inebriation of an idealistic soul which had a casing of passion, but the passion of the mind and not of the body; for Jean Jacques had not a sensual drift in his organism. If there had been a sensual drift, probably Carmen would still have been the lady of his manor, and he would still have been a magnate and not a potential bankrupt; for in her way Carmen had been a kind of balance to his judgment in the business of life, in spite of her own material and (at the very last) sensual strain. It was a godsend to Jean Jacques to have such an inspiration as Virginie Poucette had given him. He could not in these days, somehow, get the fires of his soul lighted, as he was wont to do in the old times, and he loved talking—how he loved talking of great things! He was really going hard, galloping strong, when Virginie interrupted him, first by an exclamation, then, as insistently he repeated the words, “It is the epitome of the spirit, the shrine of—”